As I commented before our first night we spent in the city of Arica – at the very northern part of Chile after crossing the border with Peru. Arica is quite big, with an airport, several industries and much commerce businesses. The next
morning we followed the Panamericana southbound and went through what they call “Pampa”- open areas of sand, sandy and stone mountains – and just small villages on the way. A landscape that resembles the moon, says Daniel.

Since they
took our TV set we decided to leave the Panamericana and head towards the coast to get to Iquique – where there is Duty Free Zone – the ZOFRI – and ended up buying a TV set there. Before arriving in Iquique one passes through a place called
Alto Hospicio and from there you go down, and down…till you reach the coast at the bottom where Iquique is located. It is a big city – with its back to the mountains and huge dunes and its front to the Pacific Ocean. Here we stayed from Wednesday
til Saturday morning parked at a parking lot in front of a Holiday Inn along with several other campers of foreign travelers and some belonging to Chileans who display their vehicles there to rent or sell. Here we met a Canadian family travelling with their
three little girls, a German couple = Ludwig and Elisabeth – whose vehicle was built at Vetura factory some 15 miles from our town and they even have been to the International Rodeo in Campo Bom –small world, isn’t it…We also met a
French lady called Catherine who has been traveling with her van since august of 2012.All of them very nice persons and we have exchanged many thoughts about these trips.

We stayed longer in Iquique because the place was nice – in front of the
Ocean and also because Daniel is trying to find the glass for the window – but with no success – we will most likely have to go to Santiagao. From Iquique we went on south but this time by the coast going through Tocopilla – an old mining
town – with old houses and buildings. From here we went through many small villages and the surroundings always the same – sand, dunes, stone mountains, after Mejillones we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn which is 20km before Antofagasta and then
we reached Antofagasta which is quite big with very nice beaches, there is a casino, airport, several military posts and there were many people enjoying the beach.

I this region of Chile there are many mines. In fact, when we left the Panamericana heading
west towards Iquique we passed through a ghost town which were the headquarters of an English owned salitre mine. There were living quarters, a school, small market, cinema…all closed. They also explore the salt, copper and several other minerals.